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Intercession for America: Part 6

Thank-you to all of you who participated in the "God Is Able" Prayer Campaign yesterday. It was a big success, judging by the number of hits on the web site. It was double our normal average, making me believe that the actual number of participants totaled the number of angels that we were led to release on May 20, 2001 to do the second work of Christ.

Amazing how that works. The Lord says to release angels; we hear and respond by faith; and five years later we see the people who those angels represent stepping forward to volunteer as prayer warriors.

Once we have made this correlation, we can see that this prayer campaign marked the point where the spiritual event matched the earthly event. It took just over five years. Looking back on it, that does not seem like a long time, but for those of us who were involved in 2001, it took five years worth of patience to see this fulfillment.

Some of us were in Coer d'Alene, Idaho at that time. I mentioned this small gathering in Part 5. There were just 15 of us at the meeting to release the angels. We took note at the time that Coer d'Alene is French for "Heart of the Awl." So let me explain how this prophesied of you who participated in the prayer campaign.

In Deut. 15:12-18 the Lord speaks of the law of servants (or slaves, if you will, although biblical slavery is not like worldly slavery; in the Bible, slaves had some rights and certainly had the right not to be mistreated; if a master mistreated him, he was to be set free).

The presumption in this law is that the slave-owner was a godly man who would treat everyone with love. The law says that a Hebrew slave was to serve six years and then be released in the seventh with liberal provisions and payment. In fact, life for the slave was presumed to be so good that the law postulates the slave returning to his master after his year's vacation, saying in Deut. 15:16, 17,

" 'I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you. Then you shall take an AWL and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever."

This transformed the servant into a bondservant (i.e., slave to bondslave). Today we think of this as a great evil--and it normally is, but it really depends upon who our master is. In our relationship with God, we progress from servants to bondservants. The Apostle Paul refers to himself as a bondservant (slave) of Jesus Christ at the beginning of his letters. He was referring to the fact that he was not a servant out of constraint, but out of love for his Master.

Though Jesus Christ had set him free, Paul had returned out of a heart of love, saying, "I will not go out from you." He became a voluntary bondservant, having his earlobe "opened" by the AWL.

This signified that he had an EAR to hear, and that the law was written on his heart. He was saying that his obedience to the law of God was not out of constraint, but out of love. It was a voluntary obedience, motivated by his love for the Master. This showed that he was in full agreement with God's law and had developed a relationship with him that was no longer based upon fear, but upon love.

Our great example is Jesus Himself, of whom it is written in Psalm 40:6-8,

"Sacrifice and meal offering Thou hast not desired; MY EARS THOU HAST OPENED; Burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required, Then I said, BEHOLD, I COME; In the scroll of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy law is within my heart."

When the servant returns, saying, "Behold, I come," he is presenting himself before the Father in the temple of heaven, saying, "Thanks for setting me free, but I love my Master, and I do not want to leave. Your law is within my heart, and I do your will out of delight, not by constraint."

In the law the Master was to use an awl and bore a hole in the servant's earlobe. In the New Covenant, God does this spiritually. Actually, it signifies that the person's ears have been opened to hear the word. (The Hebrew word shema, has a double meaning; it means both to hear and to obey.)

The wonderful thing about being God's bondservant is that rather than diminishing his status, it enhances it. It indicates a whole new relationship with God that goes beyond servanthood. A bondservant is actually a FRIEND. Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:15,

"No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you."

Thus, the transformation from slave to bondslave is the same as from slave to friend, because the bondslave has a love relationship that is in AGREEMENT with the Master. He can now be trusted to do the Master's will, because his "slavery" is voluntary, not out of compulsion.

Another way of looking at this is that the person has moved from servanthood to Sonship. But all of this is established upon two great pillars: Love and Faith. I explained this in Part 5 to some extent. The volunteers for Gideon's army had to pass these two tests. Those who were fearful were to go home, because Gideon was following the laws of war (Deut. 20:8). If they had truly had a love-relationship with God, rather than one of compulsive servanthood, their love would have cast out their fear (1 John 4:18).

The second test was that of discerning the word, which, in practical terms, is one's ability to "hear." God told Gideon to observe how they drank the "water" of the word. Faith comes by hearing.

These two elements are the most prominent factors in Psalm 40:6-8 (quoted earlier). The freed slave returns to his Master out of a heart of LOVE, saying "BEHOLD, I COME." Further, he says, "MY EARS HAST THOU OPENED," which indicates the ability to hear. Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17).

And so, five years ago we met at the Heart of the Awl to dedicate ourselves to the Master and have our ears opened. Fifteen people met as representatives of the firstfruits company. Now, five years later, we are seeing a fuller manifestation of this emerge in the world, according to the number of angels released at that time to finish the second work of Christ. (This concept is explained in my book, The Laws of the Second Coming, chapters 10 and 11. You can read it online.)

In May of 2001 the word of prophecy was spoken that God was raising up a new Gideon's army. We were informed of this by the word of God, and we certainly have a part in this--but let me make it clear that we are not the only ones on the planet through whom God is working to raise up this army. I am just glad to be a part of it, and I find it a delight to do His will.

This, then, was the background for the actual warfare that began on July 1, 2001. Once the seven princes over America had been taken captive on March 24, 2001, and once we had begun to pray "God Bless America," then God established the first beginnings of this new Gideon's Army. He did so by releasing the angels of this army, who are actually their spiritual representatives, or agents, in the heavens. Through them, believers do spiritual warfare, usually without their own conscious knowledge.

In other words, you who participated in this prayer campaign have already been in warfare since 2001. Whether you knew it or not. Thanks for your help.